A Semiconductor light emitting element including multiple compound semiconductor layers stacked one on another on a substrate has been heretofore known. An LED (light emitting diode) is known as a typical semiconductor light emitting element. In the LED, a pn or pin junction of compound semiconductors (GaAs, GaP, AlGaAs, or the like) is formed. The LED utilizes a light-emitting phenomenon occurring through recombination of carriers, which are injected into the junction by applying a forward voltage to the junction.
Such an LED has conventionally been manufactured by: epitaxially growing a compound semiconductor such as GaAs, AlGaAs, InP or InGaAsP on a single-crystal substrate of GaAs, InP or the like using a crystal growth method such as LPE (liquid phase epitaxy), MOCVD (metal organic chemical vapor deposition), VPE (vapor phase epitaxy) and MBE (molecular beam epitaxy) with the compound semiconductor being lattice-matched to the substrate; and processing the epitaxially-grown compound semiconductor.
In recent years, a nitride semiconductor is in use for a blue LED, which is used as a light source and the like for illumination or back light, or for an LED, an LD and the like, which are used for multi-color effects. In the case of the nitride semiconductor light emitting element, a pn or pin junction is formed on a substrate such as a sapphire substrate by MOCVD or the like.
The semiconductor light emitting element is formed as described above. A semiconductor light emitting device including a large number of semiconductor light emitting elements of this kind which are formed and arrayed on a common substrate has been manufactured (see Patent Document 1, for instance).    Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-6582